I guess I have this thing, I had never heard of it before but I have it based on Wikipedia's description, I also have very few memories of my life, which can be disturbing, maybe this is why.

For the record I love novels, inc fantasy fiction and descriptive sci-fi without having a minds eye to bring it into.

e.g. Big fan of starship troopers (the book) which is completely set in an invented universe none of which I have visualized. I saw the film and I can't remember its visual interpretation. (I do remember it being lame compared to the book)

Even without a minds eye I sometimes find some directors visual interpretation jarring.

How do you visualizers get on with the colour of magic? Do you have to see everything?

On the plus side I support two concurrent internal monologues or one that goes double speed & I can go full-duplex.

Let's say somebody shows you a picture of a house for a couple of minutes and then takes it away, is there no way for you to recollect and reproduce anything that was on that picture (visually)?

not the OP but similar to him. I can fleetingly see details individually in my mind, i struggle to really see the whole house. i can see (fleetingly) in my mind how the shutters are built, their material, what color they are, how they fold over the window. and so on for each feature of the house.

reading fiction and fantasy books are also sort of boring for me because i have no mental image of the characters or their settings or faces or anything like that. like if it's describing a blacksmith's forge, sure i know that has a forge and anvil and tools and quenching bucket. but there's not really a cohesive setting in my head of what it looks like for the story.

i also cant really mentally image the faces of people i know. i can see their features but their face in my mind doesn't really look human. i can't imagine someone's whole body including their face. i have no issue recognizing faces and putting them to names in person though.

i have a notoriously bad memory. i still made good grades in school and can study and retain knowledge and skills. but i forget the vast majority of conversations i've had with people after a couple weeks, and my fiance is constantly telling me things i said where i have no memory of saying it.

Thanks. So if I understand it correct it's not that you're unable to see anything in your mind, but it's hard to get an exact, coherent, picture.

yes, for me anyway. to the point that it's pretty useless

> On the plus side I support two concurrent internal monologues or one that goes double speed & I can go full-duplex

Wow, really? I'd love to hear more about how that works.

I have it and I love reading novels. Like I can't "see" your comment or any other comment but I understand what you are saying. Likewise I can't "see" novels but that doesn't mean I can't understand and find them interesting.

To be clear, I don't "see" comments like this. It's pretty specific to engaging content that is apt to be visualized. i.e. I don't tend to visualize books or passages that aren't as engaging to me.

For sure, I understand. Was more trying to say that it is not necessary to visualize comments to enjoy them. Likewise it is not necessary to visualize a book to enjoy it. "For sale, baby shoes, never worn." I don't see the shoes, and I don't see the advertisement but damn if it doesn't make me feel sad.

I can't quite describe how it works, but I still get something out of a visual description. If the author mentions a small red leather book and then later a large wooden book with a blue ribbon across it I get a different "sense" for lack of a better word. I have seen both things and know what they look like even if I can't form a visual picture in my mind while reading it. To be more precise I haven't actually seen a wooden book with a blue ribbon across it, but I have seen both of those items individually and know how it would look if they were combined. But I don't actually have a picture of it in my mind.